Here is the murderously funny movie based on the world famous Clue board game. And now, with this special DVD version, you can see all 3 surprise endings! Was it Colonel Mustard in the study with a gun? Miss Scarlet in the billiard room with the rope? Or was it Wadsworth the butler? Meet all the notorious suspects and discover all their foul play things. You'll love their dastardly doings as the bodies and the laughs pile up before your eyes.

In the category of "life's great mysteries" falls this question: who in the
world thought to make a movie based on a board game? In this regard,
I believe that 1985's Clue stands alone. Some films have come from
videogame sources (Super Mario Brothers and the upcoming Tomb
Raider flick), but at least their origins make some sense theatrically,
since videogames are often more cinematic a plot-related than boardgames.
(Okay, the "Mario" comparison is a stretch, but I stand by my comparison, if
just because I needed a good introduction.)

I suppose that if one wants to make a boardgame-based film, "Clue" was as
sensible a source as any. The game is essentially a murder mystery that
requires the player to solve it, and that doesn't seem too different from
normal movies that use similar plots. I still think it's just an odd
concept, though, and it clearly didn't catch fire, as I can't think of any
other boardgame-related films in the 15 years since Clue. (I'm still
waiting for Candyland: The Revenge and Hungry Hungry Hippos Do
Dallas.)

I actually never saw Clue; as I recall, it received pretty poor
reviews, and there was no positive word of mouth to compel me to watch it,
so I never bothered. Now that it's out on DVD, however, and I'm a big-shot
reviewers, I figured I'd give it a gander.

Much to my surprise, the film itself actually provides a moderate amount of
fun. Clue is a modest little piece that maintains a consistently -
and appropriately - light tone; it never goes so far as to acknowledge its
origins, but it keeps up a vaguely tongue in cheek attitude throughout the
movie.

That mood works well for this project, as it wouldn't have benefited from
either taking itself too seriously or ranging too far to the campy side of
the street. Although I don't know if I'd indeed refer to Clue as
"campy", it definitely stays loose and glib, and the actors provide
wonderfully broad performances; they all know they're playing glorified
cartoon characters, and they behave appropriately.

The cast of Clue probably is its greatest strength, as we find a
tremendously solid roster of character actors without a single leading man
or lady in the mix. Actually, I suppose that once upon a time, Lesley Anne
Warren (Miss Scarlet) had leading lady potential, but she never went much of
anywhere and has spent most of her career in smaller parts.

Of the rest of the principals, some have played lead roles but all have
earned their keep through supporting parts. From Michael McKean to Martin
Mull to Christopher Lloyd to Eileen Brennan to Madeline Kahn to Tim Curry -
these are all actors who have great depth to their careers and who are
accustomed to working in supporting roles. As such, since none of
the parts in Clue are leads, this group can mesh together well and
carry what otherwise might have been a weak piece.

By the way, since it hasn't been all that long since Kahn's untimely death,
I suppose the fashionable thing would be to make some comment about how much
I miss her and how terrific she was. I won't, because that would be
hypocritical; I didn't dislike Kahn but I had no particular affection for
her work. However, she does offer perhaps the funniest bit in Clue,
made more amusing because it's a complete throwaway move that only appears
in one of the film's three endings (more about that soon).

Toward the very end of the movie, Curry's butler turns off the lights before
he explains the identity of the murderer. (This device was used to make the
transition between the action and the different endings run smoothly.) For
one of the conclusions, the butler says, "Sorry - I didn't mean to scare
you", to which McKean's Mr. Green replies, "It's a bit too late for that! I
hate it when he does that!" As Mrs. White, Kahn lets out this pathetic
warble of a scream combined with a gasp that's spectacularly strange but
amazingly funny; I almost missed it the first time and had to zip back to
watch it again.

As odd as it may sound, it's that kind of moment where the casting of
Clue pays off. The character actors in the film are so experienced
and so talented, they can take an absolutely nothing moment and make it
something special. Clue itself will never be regarded as a classic,
but I found it to be fairly entertaining, largely due to the efforts of the
wonderful cast.

Now about those different endings: in a move that added maybe seven dollars
to the film's pathetic $3 million gross, the producers shot three different
endings and randomly attached them to different prints. The hope was to
induce repeat viewings, since people would want to see all three
conclusions. Unfortunately, Clue was such a bomb that almost no one
wanted to watch it end once much less sit through it two (or more)
additional times.

All three endings appear on this DVD, and the format allows the viewer to
select how he or she would like them presented. For videotape, the studio
created what they call the "trilogy ending". This attaches all three of the
"solutions" to the end of the movie and runs them back-to-back-to-back.
Lamely, it calls the final one "what really happened", which defeats the
entire purpose of the multiple endings.

The better solution features here due to the programmability of DVD. When
you start Clue, you can select either the "trilogy ending" or to view
one of the three at random. In my opinion, this is definitely the best way
to watch the movie. If you just want to see what's in all the endings, then
you should use the "trilogy", but if you want to view the movie in a more
normal fashion, the random conclusion is the way to go.

Although they failed to ignite the box office, I think the random endings
are kind of a cool idea. However, they do make Clue more of a comedy
and less of a mystery. Because each ending features a different murderer,
that means the storyline has to keep things sufficiently vague. In other
words, it's literally impossible to solve the mystery as you watch the film.
In fact, more attentive viewers may find multiple problems with the various
solutions; I'm not that attentive, but the entry for Clue on IMDB
shows how many holes appear in the different conclusions.

Ultimately, the film still works because of the broad and ebullient work of
the actors, but I can't help but think that Clue would have been a
better movie as a whole without the extra endings. Yes, they're a fun idea,
but the generic sense that they forced hurts the story. The comedy is
sufficient to make the film entertaining, but had the picture offered a more
clear-cut mystery we could follow, it might have been a real winner. As it
stands, Clue will just have to settle for being a moderately
enjoyable little piece of fluff.

The DVD:

Clue appears in its original theatrical aspect ratio of approximately
1.85:1 on this single-sided, single-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced
for 16X9 televisions. Although consistently watchable, the movie presents
an somewhat problematic picture that generally seems decent but rarely
better than that.

Sharpness varies throughout the film but usually appears acceptably accurate
and crisp. Quite a few scenes tend toward the soft side of the scale,
however, especially as shots widen to include two or more characters; even
at their most extreme, the soft segments never look radically ill-defined,
but the fuzziness definitely lends a negative influence. Moiré effects and
jagged edges seemed absent, and I also saw little evidence of artifacts from
the anamorphic downconversion on my 4X3 TV. The print itself appeared
fairly clean, with no signs of grain, scratches, nicks or hairs, although I
did detect some light speckling throughout the film.

Clue sticks to a pretty subdued and brownish palette, but I didn't
see any blandness in the colors that didn't seem to result from the
production design. While the brighter hues we view don't exactly qualify as
"eye-popping", they nonetheless appear accurate and nicely-defined. Black
levels seem slightly mushy but are generally dark and mildly rich, while
shadow detail tends to look a little too opaque; I didn't think the shadows
were ridiculously heavy, but they did obscure aspects of the image that
should have been more visible. All in all, Clue seems perfectly
watchable but lacks much spark in the visual domain.

Less exciting is the film's monaural soundtrack. For one, I think it's
pretty weak for a major studio release from 1985 to be stuck with a mono
mix; Dolby Surround was very common by then, so I have no idea why this film
offers only a single-channel track.

That drawback may have been less problematic if the quality seemed better,
but the audio sounds mediocre at best. Dialogue appears thin and reedy and
occasionally betrays some slight distortion; I can't say I had trouble
understanding the speech, but it didn't come across as very warm or natural.
Effects displayed similar hollow and limp qualities, although I detected no
distortion from them. The music was adequately smooth and melodic, though
it lacked any sense of bass. The soundtrack for Clue would have been
perfectly acceptable for a movie that came out in 1965, but since it
appeared in 1985, that's not good enough.

Clue lacks significant extras. All we find are a theatrical trailer
plus the presence of all three afore-mentioned endings. A commentary would
have been nice to address the challenges in adapting a boardgame to the
screen, but any such insight cannot be found here.

Despite that, I found Clue to offer a surprisingly entertaining
diversion. The film clearly will never be regarded a classic, but the
combination of a classy cast and some appropriately light direction make it
a fun little romp. Unfortunately, the DVD itself is mediocre at best; both
picture and sound are bland, and the disc includes virtually no supplements.
Clue is delightful enough to warrant a rental, but the lackluster
quality of the DVD means that I can't recommend anything more than that.